This invention relates to an expansible corridor and particularly to an expansible corridor spanned or suspended between horizontal support members such as beam members of a structure so that operators can walk and carry out operations on the corridor.
Generally in building structures like buildings, ships, etc., a corridor is spanned or suspended between horizontal support members like beams of buildings or pieces projecting from bottoms of ships to secure so-called scaffoldings and corridors on which operators walk.
This corridor, as shown in FIG. 1 for example, comprises a pair of support girders 1 that are longer than the interval between horizontal support members, a plurality of single pipes 2 spanned between the support girders 1 and spaced properly from each other, a plurality of long scaffolding plates 3 mounted on these single pipes 2, a plurality of struts 4 consisting of pipes or the like secured fixedly to the support girder 1 on the lower end and projecting upward and hand-rail pipes 6 secured fixedly to the struts 4 through clamps 5 and interconnecting the heads of the struts 4. On the other hand, since the distance between the horizontal support materials spanned by this corridor is not constant, but long or short, the length of the support girder 1 or scaffolding plate 3 constituting the corridor must be longer than at least the distance between the horizontal support members, and various lengths of the scaffolding plates 3 or support girder 1 must be prepared for the distance between the horizontal support members. Thus, to provide a desired corridor in a building site, various lengths of the scaffolding plates 3 and girder member 1 together with a plurality of the other pipe members or the like must be prepared while a large storage space is uneconomically needed when they are stored in an idle time. When a desired corridor is assembled by utilizing these members, not only the transfer of long scaffolding plate 3 and girder member 1 is inconvenient, but also great care must be taken in the assembly operation which tends to be carried out in an elevated spot, resulting in very bad operability. Further, it is very difficult in a building spot having a narrow space to transfer the once assembled corridor to another place since a large amount of labor and time is inconveniently needed for the transfer operation.
That is, it is impossible for one operator to carry the scaffolding plate 3, etc. since they are long, and when the corridor is transferred in a narrow place with a plurality of operators and a crane, the long scaffolding plate 3 collides with the other building materials and structures and the direction of transfer is difficult to change so that the transfer operations are remarkably troublesome.